Take The Truck's 84 Xtracab Pickup Build

takethetruck

Active member
We recently ditched our trusty Roadshower in favor of this 10 gallon DIY setup we came up with. Most of the parts can be found at the hardware store, and it's pretty versatile as far as the fill options. Though we use it just as a gravity flow in our setup, you can easily add a 12v pump to pressurize it if needed. So far we've been happy with the simplicity and moving the weight down a little to improve the COG(y)

diy-camping-shower-water-container.jpg
 

takethetruck

Active member
Put together a write-up on our half-platform and general camping layout now that we have the Go Fast Camper on the truck, it's been a nice modular setup. One of the things we really like is that you can downstack the frontrunner wolfpacks and extend the sleeping platform to sleep two below if needed. Had intended to rebuild with 80/20, but not sure we'd gain much in the way of weight savings.

half-platform-setup.jpghalf-platform-build.jpg

Also got busy with a little TLC on the truck:

Decided to put a fresh set of Old Man Emu springs, shocks, and stabilizer on the truck in preperation for our next trip - the original set had 80k miles on them and the front springs were a little worse for wear after seeing some pretty serious abuse when we were exploring Drummond Island off the Michigan U.P. awhile back. Only took me 3hrs, the cold was a helluva motivator! ?

old-man-emu-toyota-pickup-build-springs-shocks.jpg

Installed one of the Mountain Hatch tailgate inserts to replace the old foam exercise mat we had modded to fit the tailgate previously in order to protect our knees as we climb in and out. Had a chance to meet some of the guys behind Mountain Hatch at the MOORE expo recently, and they're a great group of folks.

mountain-hatch-tailgate-insert-cutting-board.jpg

And installed a new heater core after the original gave up the ghost after 36 years of service - ended up being a bit of a bear getting the correct part in (after trying 5 different cores from three separate parts stores, I finally ordered OSC # 98662 online). Also granted me the opportunity to clean out 36 years of dust from the HVAC pipes, and clean up some shoddy stereo wiring. Definitely not a job you want to do twice, as it required the complete removal of the Dash to access the core without disconnecting the AC lines.

toyota-pickup-heater-core-removal-replacement.jpg Before
toyota-pickup-heater-core-replacement-complete.jpeg After ?

Now you can practically bake bread in the cab, it puts out so much heat!
 

PaintRock

Adventurer
I love your pickup. That being said, I'd really like to have that Bigfoot camper. Did you sell that? Do you have any more details on it?
 

takethetruck

Active member
The means is not the goal, the adventure is (something I have to keep repeating to myself recently). As our family grows, so has our need for a slightly larger adventure vehicle; so we've decided to sell our beloved toyota pickup to fund our next build. You can find the listing here.

Thanks to all who have followed along, we're looking forward to the future and the next chapter.
 
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